E 




THE PART BORNE BY 



Sergt. John White Paul 



IN THE CAPTURE OF 



Brig. Gen. Richard Prescott. 



1777. 




Qass. 
Book. 



^^^ 



- P^d 1 



THE PART BORNE BY 



SERGEANT JOHN WHITE PAUL 



OP 



Col John Topham's Regiment 



OF THE RHODE ISLAND BRIGADE, 



CAPTURE OF BRIGADIER GENERAL RICHARD PRESCOTT, 

COMMANDER OF THE BRITISH FORCES, NEAR 

NEWPORT, R. I., IN Mil. 



EDWARD J. PAUL, 

A MEMBER OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN. 



MILWAUKEE: 
SWAIN & TATE, BOOK AND JOB PEINTEKS, 
1887. ~ " 






I 



^33 
^31 



THE PART BORNE BY 

SERGEANT JOHN WHITE PAUL, 

OF 

Col John Topham's Regiment 

OF THE RHODE ISLAND BRIGADE, 
IN THE 

CAPTURE OF BRIGADIER GENERAL RICHARD PRESCOTT, 

COMMANDER OF THE BRITISH FORCES, NEAR 

NEWPORT, R. I., IN 1777. 



The character of a people, so far as it is an ex- 
pression of positive and usual traits of individuals, is 
largely the result of political conditions ; and some 
one, endeavoring to determine the relative values of 
these conditions, has remarked that certain qualities of 
American character, restless industry, ingenuity, firm 
yet audacious courage, and entire self-reliance — quali- 
ties essential to industrial success — are so distinctively 
our own that European artists, accustomed to the 
hereditary subordination and discipline of an empire, 
cannot grasp the spirit that animates our armies. 

Certainly some of our great paintings, portraying 
lines of battle wavering with impulse, and broken by 
deeds of singular devotion, are evidences that an 
American soldier enjoys a consciousness of duty and 



freedom of action, in harmony with our institutions. 
Yet our national ofrowth has not been in defiance of 
any principle. Before selfish affairs of business had 
absorbed any one's interest in the common good, 
patriotism, though possibly not more generous, was 
more personal. It was rather an incentive than a 
sentiment, and the forms of its expression were so 
unrestricted that all of those exploits that make the 
story of the revolution sacred history, seem now to be 
both the results and proofs of the strength and char- 
acter of native energies. 

None of these exploits was more hazardous and 
brilliant in its success, more barren of direct advan- 
tage, and yet more refreshing to the inexperienced 
continental troops, than the capture of Brigadier General 
Richard Prescott,^ the commander of the British forces, 
near Newport, R. I., in 1777, by a number of men, led 
by Lieut. Colonel William Barton. 

Mrs. Williams' narrative of the expedition," corres- 
ponding, substantially, with an account of it left by 
Barton'' in his own handwriting, is briefly as follows : 

Colonel Barton, having learned from a Mr. Coffin, 
who had escaped through the British lines, that Gen- 
eral Prescott was quartered at the house of Mr. Over- 
ing, on the west side of Rhode Island, about a mile 
from the shore, embarked from Tiverton, the evening 
of July 4, 1777, with Colonel Stanton, Ebenezer 
Adams, Captain of Artillery, Lieut. James Potter, 
Joshua Babcock, John W^ilcox, and about forty men, in 
five whale-boats ; and havinof encountered a storm in 
Mount Hope bay, arrived at Bristol at about nine 



o'clock the next evening. The evening of the sixth of 
July, with muffled oars, they passed over to Warwick 
Neck, and having been delayed there by northeast 
winds, did not re-embark until late in the evening of 
the ninth. Then, following Barton, who had tied his 
handkerchief to a pole to distinguish his own boat, they 
steered between the islands of Prudence and Patience, 
to avoid the enemy's shipping over against Mount Hope 
island, and rowed under the west side of Prudence, to 
the southward, coming so near the British vessels that 
they could hear the watch cry : " All's Well ! " About 
three-quarters of a mile from the island they were 
startled by the trampling of horses, yet pushing on, 
landed safely, and moored their boats in a creek, shel- 
tered by a little bluff of sand. 

To the right, a brook crossing the road near the 
Overing House, descending the hill toward the left 
and running through a kind of gorge, emptied into the 
creek. Keeping in the gully and under the ridge, the 
party advanced cautiously, and emerging back of 
Peleg Coggshall's farm, gained the road. In passing 
to the house, they left the guard-house forty or fifty 
rods to the left. A little to the left of that was the 
Redwood House, where General Smith, second in 
command, was quartered. On the right, or Newport 
side, was a building appropriated to a troop of light 
horse, and, twenty-five yards from the gate, was a sen- 
tinel. 1 he occupants of the house, Mr. Overing and 
his son. General Prescott, his' aide Major Barrington, 
and the servants, were in deep sleep, presumably the 
effects of a carouse at the house-of one Bannister, a 



Tory, upon the wines and Santa Cruz of a prize, 
brought into Newport the day before. 

To the sentinel's demand : " Who comes there ? " 
the patriots answered : " Friends ! Have you seen any 
deserters to-night ? " and approaching apparently to 
give the countersign, suddenly seized and bound him, 
surrounded the house and burst open the door. Bar- 
ton, calling to them to set fire to the house, found 
Prescott abed, and hurried him to the boats. And his 
resolute men, securing Major Barrington also, and 
hastily retreating, pushed off, and made their way with 
the prisoners, among the alarmed vessels of the fleet, 
through darkness illumined by rockets and Hashing 
guns, safely across Narragansett bay, to the battery on 
Warwick Neck. 

Since childhood I have been taught that my great 
grandfather's brother, John White~ Paul, born at 
Dighton, Mass., in 1755."* was an officer of no exalted 
rank in Barton's regiment, and was the second man 
chosen to accompany him on this dangerous enter- 
prise ; that, because of his great strength and weight, 
he was one of the men selected to throttle the sentinel 
at General Prescott's door, and, afterwards, to con- 
duct the General across the fields to the boats ; and 
that, when Prescott complained that the stubble hurt 
his bare feet, John Paul was courteous enough — and 
there was a yeoman's irony in his courtesy — to offer 
to let the General wear his big, low, shoes. 

The story is corroborated in many details, and 
especially in that part in which it is peculiar, by the 



words of a revolutionary song,'^ one verse of which 



runs : 



"Then through rye stubble him they led, 
With shoes and breeches none." 



and ag-rees with the narratives above mentioned, so 
closely in some places, that it might seem to have 
been partly derived from them, had it not been related 
thirty years before either of them was written.^ Yet 
the story is not simply a family tradition, for, although 
cherished in the family, nothing obscure shrouds its 
origin, and the relation of my father, of my grand- 
father and of my great grandfather, is not the only 
evidence of its truth. 

Desiring, however, to embody an authoritative state- 
ment of these facts in the genealogy of the Paul 
family,' I searched the files' of "The Pennsylvania 
Evening Post," and of " The Providence Gazette," for 
contemporaneous and particular reports of the adven- 
ture, and learned only, that those who shared its perils 
with Barton were about forty-six volunteers. Barton's 
own account leaves the impression that there were 
forty-eight.^ Nevertheless, eighty-three years after 
the event, Lossing's "Field Book of the Revolution"^" 
states that there were forty, and that their names, as 
furnished by General Barton's son, John B. Barton, 
Esq.. of Providence, were as follows : 

Officers : Andrew Stanton, Eleazer Adams, Samuel 
Potter, John Wilcox. Non-commissioned officers : 
Joshua Babcock, Samuel Phillips. Privates : Benja- 
min Pren, James Potter, Henry Fisher, James Parker, 
Joseph Guild, Nathan Smith, Isaac Brown, Billin^ton 
Crumb, James Haines, Samuel Apis, Alderman Crank, 



Oliver Simmons, Jack Sherman, Joel Briggs, Clark 
Packard, Samuel Cory, James Weaver, Clark Crandall, 
Sampson George, Joseph Ralph, Jedediah Grenale, 
Richard Hare, Darius Wale, Joseph Denis, William 
Bruff, Charles Hassett, Thomas Wilcox, Pardon Cory, 
Jeremiah Thomas, John Hunt, Thomas Austin, Daniel 
Page (a Narragansett Indian), Jack Sisson (black), 
and Howe, or Whiting, boat steerer. 

From this list John Paul is not only omitted, but 
excluded, apparently, by the implication of a note,^^ 
which adds : " In Allen's American Biography the 
name of the black man is written Prince ; and he says 
he died at Plymouth in 182 1, aged seventy-eight years. 
The name given by Mr. Barton must be correct, for 
he has the original paper of his father. 

These statements are the only ones upon the sub- 
ject I have been able to find, that are positive ; and 
knowing that the error they conceal, might measure- 
ably detract from John Paul's just reputation, I pro- 
ceeded to investigate the grounds they were made 
upon. 

What was this original paper ? General Barton, in 
his own account, does not give the names of his men ; 
and the Rev. James Pierce Root, of Providence,^' who 
searched the archives of the State House for me, and 
examined Barton's manuscripts, and the military 
papers preserved in the library of the Historical Soci- 
ety of Rhode Island, could not find any original list of 
them.^^ Professor J. Lewis Diman knows of none.^'^ 
Hon. John R. Bartlett,'' of whom Mr. Lossing wrote 
me : " I know of no man so capable to give correct 



9 



information concerning Rhode Island history,"^^ has 
no knowledge of such a list.^' Mr. Lossing, himself, 
says that the names in the Field Book were printed 
only from a copy of the original sent him by John B. 
Barton, above named. ^'^ His son, Robert H. Barton, 
of Providence, into whose possession have fallen his 
grandfather's swords and commissions, and many of 
his father's and grandfather's papers, has no such list, 
and knows of none, except that published in Mrs. 
Williams' biography.^^ And Mrs. Williams, who 
knew Barton, and had access to his papers, shortly 
after his death, remarks : " It is much to be regretted 
that the whole of the names of those brave men were 
not preserved." ^° 

Yet the mistake is readily explained. Intrinsically, 
the list does not appear to have been made by Barton 
at all, for in regard to the names of the officers who 
volunteered to go with him, it differs, materially, from 
the statement he makes in his own account of the 
expedition.'-^^ On the other hand, the names in the list 
are the same as those published by Mrs. Williams, in 
1839.^^ They are given in the same order, and 
spelled in the same way, with the exception, only, of 
four errors, of such a nature that they are themselves 
evidences of transcribing.^^ Moreover, there is not 
only a possibility, but almost a certainty, that two such 
lists derived from different sources, one set down by a 
leader who knew the facts, the other made up by his 
biographer, from the memory of survivors, would 
differ widely. Undoubtedly, " the original paper " was 
Barton's own account of the expedition, in manuscript, 



10 



then in the possession of his son, and afterwards pre- 
sented to the Historical Society of Rhode Island ; and 
Mr. Lossing's inability to have it at hand at the time 
of writing the note, gave rise, possibly, to a misappre- 
hension that it contained a list of the men. 

Mrs. Williams, however, whose interest and oppor- 
tunities informed her particularly,^^ manifests much un- 
certainty concerning the number of men engaged. 
Her estimates range from forty-seven to fifty-one, and 
she confesses her inability to determine precisely how 
many.^'' Yet she gives a list of all the names she can 
gather, depending, principally, upon the memories of 
two men who had lived longer than their allotted time. 
She says : " Of all the company who figured on that 
memorable night, in the capture, we are not aware 
that but two remain — Samuel Cory, now residing in 
Portsmouth, and Mr. Whitney, of New York." -^ And 
yet she has even forgotten to include " Mr. Whitney " 
in her list of the " immortal forty." -'' 

Ihat list has been copied by Diman,-^ and by 
Cowell f^ and has been accepted, not only without criti- 
cism, but almost without comment, for fifty years. 
Nevertheless, though undoubtedly reliable enough to 
prove that those whom it names accompanied Barton, 
it is not based upon certain and thorough knowledge, 
is not broad enough and strong enough to be nega- 
tive evidence, and cannot exclude those whom it 
omits, from the honors of such patriotic service. 

Cowell, in " The Spirit of '76," gives a roster of the 
brigade raised from New Hampshire, Connecticut, 
Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations, and 



11 



Massachusetts Bay, for the defense of Rhode Island, 
pursuant to the recommendation of the Convention 
of the Committees of Safety, that met in Providence, 
December 25, 1776. It consisted of Colonel John 
Topham's and Colonel Archibald Crary's regiments of 
foot, and Colonel Robert Elliott's artillery, 'I'hey 
were first enlisted for fifteen months ending March 
16. 1778, and by an act of the General Assembly, for 
twelve months ending March 16, 1779, and again, 
for twelve months ending March 16, 1780.^'' 

Of those named above as having been with Barton 
at Prescott's capture, Captain Ebenezer Adams, who 
joined him at Warwick Neck."^ was possibly from the 
battery stationed there. Jack Sherman, Jedediah 
Grenale, Thomas Wilcox and John Hunt, were, 
according to the roster, men of Elliott's artillery. 
James Potter. James Parker and Jack Sisson, appear 
to have been men of Crary's regiment, and nearly all 
the rest : 

Lieut. Andrew Stanton, fifer John Wilcox. Captain 
Joshua Babcock, Major Samuel Phillips, and Isaac 
Brown, Billington Crumb, Samuel Apis, Alderman 
Crank, Samuel Cory, Oliver Simmons, corporal Clark 
Crandall, Joel Briggs, Joseph Ralph, James Weaver, 
Daniel Page, Sampson George, William Bruff, Lieut. 
Daniel Wale and Nathan Smith, were members of 
Colonel Topham's regiment, stationed at Tiverton in 
July, 1777,^" of which Barton, himself, was lieutenant 
colon el ,^^ 

John Paul, and Peter Paul, his brother, belonged 
to this regiment.^^ According— tcr the roster, John 



12 



Paul was a sergeant. He was then in the vigor 
of manhood ; and of strength and agihty that have be- 
come proverbiaL He was used to the sea and; his 
home was at Dighlon, on the I'aunton river, that 
ebbed and flowed with the tides of Narragansett bay. 
Shortly after his discharge he removed to West- 
minster, Windham County, Vermont ; and there, with 
what he had probably saved from a soldier's pay, and 
received from Rhode Island as his part of the reward 
for Prescott's capture, he bought a farm, and lived, an 
independent, thrifty. God-fearing man.^^ January 20, 
1804. he died, leaving eleven children. Two of them 
were born in Dighton. All of them knew that he was 
with Barton. Prescott's hat and metal inkstand, which 
he brought away, were in the family many )ears. He 
made his son Joshua wear the hat, and often met his 
protests by saying : " It was General Prescott's hat, 
and is good enough!" Joshua died in Ohio, Herkimer 
County, New York, May 8, 1869, aged eighty- nine 
years ; and his eldest brother, John Paul, who helped 
him one day, lo cut up the obnoxious hat, and hide 
the pieces in a stump, died at the same place, January 
I, 1859, aged eighty. A son of the former, Charles 
H. Paul, born April 5, 1807, was many years a Justice 
of the Peace at Mohawk, Herkimer County, New 
York, and is living there now. Of the latter's child- 
ren, Richard O. Paul, born December 27, 181 3, and 
Edwin Paul, born August 11, 1821, are yet living, one 
at Wilmurt, Herkimer County, and the other at 
Evans Mills, Jefferson County, New York. The 
youngest of these grandchildren was born less than 



13 



eighteen years after John Paul died, and more than 
thirty-seven years before his own father's death. 
And each of them stoutly and honestly asserts what 
his father and the brothers and sisters of his father 
said — the story I have told.^^ 

About 1805 the family removed from Westminster, 
o-oing: westward across the mountains into New York. 
In Vermont they had been separated from other 
branches. In New York they were isolated, and soon 
forgotten. Yet the story of the part borne by John 
Paul in Prescott's capture is still preserved at the old 
homestead, in Dighton, Massachusetts, by the grand- 
children of his younger brother Peter, who was by 
his side in the ranks of Barton's regiment, and went 
with the expedition, that memorable night in July, to 
the island, where he was stationed at the creek to 
guard the boats ; and in New Jersey, by the grand- 
children of his brother, Benjamin Paul, who was at 
Germantown, Valley Forge and Monmouth f''^ by the 
descendants of his sister Elizabeth, who married Asa 
Briggs, another soldier of the revolution, and settled 
at Plymouth. Vermont ; and by the descendants of 
his brother James Paul, my great-grandfather, who 
was not old enough to be of service in the war. 

He, too, having found his way up the Connecticut 
valley into Vermont, eventually settled at Northfield ; 
and his son Amos Paul, born there March 11, 1793, 
was a merchant at Danville from 1819 to 1830, and 
afterwards clerk of the courts of Caledonia county. 
General Barton, who was for fourteen years confined 
to the jail limits of Danville, maftifested in many ways 



14 



peculiar interest and confidence in my grandfather. 
He did his banking at my grandfather's store ; and 
often, idling away an hour there, spoke of John Paul's 
strength and courage, and of the address with which 
he helped to secure the sentinel quietly, and laughing, 
of the haste, yet courtesy, with which he dragged 
Prescott to the boats. 

To Amos Paul's brother, also, Daniel Jewett Paul, 
born May 4, 1807, Barton told these things many 
times, at Danville, while fondly exhibiting his swords 
and relating the story of that bold invasion of the 
British camp. Daniel Paul's home was then at Dan- 
ville, and he is still living at Milwaukee, to attest 
these facts. 

On learning of little more than his testimony, Mr. 
Lossing was kind enough to write me: "The evidence 
seems conclusive in favor of the probability that your 
kinsman, John Paul, was a participant with Colonel 
Barton in the capture of Prescott." ^^ 

Certainly, considering that testimony and the tra- 
ditions, circumstances, and records now presented, 
together with the pointed way in which they all concur, 
no reasonable man can doubt that John White Paul 
was one of those who shared with Barton the perils 
and honors of that enterprise ; and so I shall record 
him. 

Is there another of Barton's volunteers whose con- 
duct has not yet been fairly recorded ? Whose child- 
ren never doubted that his reputation was secure in 
the certainty of their own knowledge of his practical 
devotion to the principles of the constitution ; whose 



15 



grandchildren are diffidently permitting that knowl- 
edge to fade into belief, belief that will subside into 
tradition, and be questioned ? Let some one of his 
posterity speak ! Facts like these are facts of history. 
An interest in our own history is an evidence of 
patriotism. And people, are beginning to have time 
to be patriotic again. 



NOTHS. 



(i) He is usually designated Major General, but Diman says: 
" He was at the time of his capture, a Brigadier General ; he was 
made a Major General August 29, 1777. He was exchanged for 
General Charles Lee, and resumed his command on Rhode Island, 
after the exchange, continuing there until after the evacuation, in 
October, 1779." Note, page 15, R. I. Historical Tract, No. i. 

Prescott came as a subordinate of Sir Henry Clinton, who passed 
through Long Island Sound, and arrived in Narragansett Bay, in 
December, 1776, with two English, and two Hessian brigades in 
seventy transports, convoyed by Sir Peter Parker, with eleven ships 
of war. In January, 1777, Clinton returned to England, leaving the 
forces in command of Earl Percy, who also returned in May, leav- 
ing Prescott in command of them. A large portion of the troops 
were quartered in farm-houses, on the island. Same, pages 15 and 16. 

(2) " Biography of Revolutionary Heroes, containing the Life of 
Brigadier General William Barton, and, also, of Captain Stephen 
Olney, by Mrs. Williams." Published by the author. Providence, 
1839. Pages 40-62, and page 126, note D. 

(3) An account in manuscript, entitled : " Narrative of the par- 
ticulars relative to the capture of Major General Prescott, and his 
Aide-de-Camp Major Barrington," and preserved in the library of 
the Historical Society of Rhode Island. Foster's Misc. papers. 
Vol. I, page 16. Paul Gen. papers. No. 4020. 

(4) Son of James Paul and Sarah White, his wife. James Paul 
was a blacksmith and farmer, a deacon in Elder GofT's Baptist 
church at Dighton, and a descendant, in the fourth generation, of 
William Paul, born 1615, who left Gravesend, England, June 10, 
1637, in the ship "True Love de London," Robert Dennis, master, 
and settled at Taunton, Mass., of which Dighton was originally a 
part, in 1637. Paul Gen. person 5024. ~^ ^ 



18 

(5) This song appears in the " Manufacturers' and Farmers' Jour- 
nal," of June 25, 1835, with a note stating that it was taken from the 
Plymouth Memorial. It is preserved in Rhode Island Historical 
Tracts, No. i, page 52, and also by Mr. Lossing, in " Harper's 
Young Folks." 

(6) Mrs. Williams' Biography was written in 1839, and Barton's 
account was probably not written long before his death, October 22, 
1831. John Paul told the story to his children, in Westminster, 
Vermont, as early as 1785, and General Barton, himself, told it to 
my grandfather Amos Paul, in Danville, about 1820. 

(7) The Genealogy of the Paul Family, descendants of William 
Paul, born 1615, one of the original proprietors of "Taunton south 
purchase," etc., is now nearly completed in manuscript, and, I hope, 
will be shortly ready for the press. Incidentally, a great deal of 
information has been gathered concerning other original families of 
the same name. 

(8) The accounts are in the issues of July 29, and July 12, 1777, 
respectively. The files of the Providence Gazette are preserved in 
the library of the Historical Society of Rhode Island. The letter in 
the Post appears to have been written by the Providence corres- 
pondent, and may be found in the " Diary of the American Revo- 
lution." Frank Moore. PubHshed by Charles Scribner, New York, 
i86o. Vol. I, page 470, note i. Paul Gen. papers. Nos. 4020 and 
4023. The number forty-six includes Barton himself, and his serv- 
ant, Guy Watson, Jack Sisson, or Prince (the black), who was pre- 
sumably, not of the " troops belongmg to the State of Rhode Island." 
Mrs. Williams' Biography, page 48, line 3; page 128, Hne 18. Also 
Rhode Island Historical Tracts. Rider. Providence, 1877. No. i, 
page 35. 

(9) The SIX officers whom he names, together with himself and 
forty men whom he selected from the ranks of the regiment, and the 
negro. Paul Gen. papers. No. 4020. 

(10) "The Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution," by Benson 
J. Lossing. Harper & Bros. New York, i860. Vol. I, page 644, 
note I. 

(11) Same. Vol. I, page 644, sub-note. 



19 



(i2) A retired Congregationalist clergyman and a descendant of 
Major Silas Talbot, of Dighton, Mass., a little later in command of 
the expedition that surprised and captured the armed galley Pigot, 
moored at the east passage of Narragansett bay. He was recom- 
mended by Mr. Amos Perry, librarian of the Rhode Island Histori- 
cal Society, to whom I am mdebted for much kindness, as " admir- 
ably qualified" to examine the records. R. I. Historical Tracts. 
No. I, page 42. Paul Gen. papers. Nos. 4039 and 40391^. 

(13) Letters from Rev. James Pierce Root, 11 Sackett Street, 
Providence, R. I., dated July 6, 1886, and February 9, 1887, re- 
spectively. Paul Gen. papers. Nos. 4020 and 4021. 

(14) See R. I. Historical Tract No. r. Prof. Diman's address is 
largely the result of original research. 

(15) Of Providence, who knew General Barton and is now in 
charge of the great library of the late John Carter Brown. Paul 
Gen. papers. Nos. 4023 and 4025. I am under obhgation to Mr. 
Bartlett, also, for assistance. 

(16) Letter from Benson J. Lossing, at "The Ridge," Dover 
Plains, Dutchess County, New York, dated February 25, 1886. 
Paul Gen. papers. No. 4023. The advice and information one of 
his ability has been kind enough to give me, have not failed of ap- 
preciation. 

(17) Letters from John R. Bartlett, 225 Benefit Street, Provi- 
dence, R. L, dated March 3, and March 5, 1886, respectively. 
Paul Gen. papers, Nos. 4025 and 4026. 

(18) Letters from Benson J. Lossing, at "The Ridge," Dover 
Plains, Dutchess County, New York, dated respectively February 
10, and February 25, 1886. Paul Gen. papers. Nos. 4022 and 
4023. 

(19) Letters from his son William Barton, 239 Westminster 
Street, Providence, R. L, dated February 20, and March 6, 1886. 
Paul Gen. papers. Nos. 4024 and 4027. I am under great obliga- 
tion to him for his generous interest. 

(20) Mrs. Williams' Biography. Page 127, line 3, also page 
no, line 11. 



20 



(2i) According to the Field Book of the Revolution, Vol. I, 
page 644, note i, there were: " Officers — Andrew Stanton, Eleazer 
Adams, Samuel Potter, John Wilcox. Non-commissioned officers — 
Joshua Babcock and Samuel Phillips." 

According to Barton's manuscript above mentioned: "The names 
of the officers were, Samuel Phillips, Lieut. James Porter, or Potter, 
Captain Joshua Babcock, Lieut. Andrew Stanton, and Ensign John 
V\ ilcocks. Captain Ebenezer Adams volunteered with us at War- 
wick Neck." Paul Gen. papers. No. 4020. 

(22) Mrs Williams' Biography, page 127, note D. 

(23) The number of names in each list is forty. Mrs. Williams, 
at pages 127 and 128, divides them into three classes : Officers, non- 
commissioned officers, and privates, and gives the names of each 
class in two columns. In the Field Book, Vol. I, page 644, note i, 
the names are given in the same classes, but having been run to- 
gether, those of the first column are followed by those of the second 
column. There is no change in the order, excepting, only, in the 
name of Pardon Cory, which seems to have been momentarily over- 
looked in transcribing, and is placed after the name of Thomas 
Wilcox, instead of before. In spelling, the name Ebenezer Adams, 
in the original, appears Eleazer Adams in ihe copy. And the sir- 
names of Benjamin Prew, and Charles Hassett, are spelled Pren,and 
Havett. 

(24) She lived at Providence, knew Barton and ' had access to 
his papers, as appears from her book. Half of the book is devoted 
to the details of Barton's life, and a large part of it to the capture of 
Prescott. 

(25) Examine and compare the statements on page 44, at lines 
16, and 27, and on page 45, at line 8. These volunteers chosen 
from the ranks certainly did not include Barton himself, his servant, 
and Colonel Stanton (page 42, line 23,) and the other five officers 
(page 44, line 6). Yet see page 47, lines 10 and 38. Also page 
127, lines 3 and 33. In the list, on page 128, appear the names of 
o"ly 33 privates, though the foregoing statements are to the effect 
that at least forty were selected. 



2jl 

(26) Mrs. Williams' Biography, page 56, line 11 ; page 130, line 
7; and page 127, line 3. Also page no, line 11. 

(27) Same. Page 127, line ^;^. 

(28) " The capture of General Richard Prescott, by Lieut. Col- 
onel William Barton." An address delivered at the centennial cele- 
bration of the exploit, at Portsmouth, R. I., July 10, 1877, by J. 
Lewis Diman, printed with a map of Narragansett bay, a portrait of 
Barton, and an autograph copy of Colonel Stanton's order authoriz- 
ing him to undertake the matter, in the Rhode Island Historical 
Tracts. Rider, Providence, 1877, being tract No. i. The list is at 
page 45' ^"d is credited, without comment, to Mrs. Williams. 

(29) " Spirit of '76 in Rhode Island," by Benjamin Cow^ll. A. J. 
Wrignt. Boston, 1850. Page 149. And although he has not cred- 
ited, he has cautiously qualified the statement. 

(30) " Spirit of '76," pages 55 to 117. 

(31) According to Barton's own narrative. 

(32) See roster referred to, which is alphabetically arranged. 
There are also other names, Benjamin Pain, James Harris, Charles 
Hewett, Clarke Parker, Joseph Davis, etc., similar to those in Mrs. 
Williams' list. 

(33) " Spirit of '76," page 68, second name. 

(34) Same, page 77, thirty-second and thirty-fifth names. 

(35) John Paul was born in 1755, ^"d in 1777 was about 
twenty-two years old. His strength and agihty at wrestlings and 
raisings, for many years afterwards, are proved by anecdotes pre- 
served by his kindred. Knowledge of the locality, and of the sea, 
were grounds upon which Barton selected the volunteers. John 
Paul's term of enlistment expired March 16, 1780. and his sons, 
Joseph and Benjamin, twins, were born in Westminster, Vermont, 
June 20, 1782. He bought the north half of lot number eleven in 
the eighth range of eighty acre lots, in that township, of Benjamin 
Bellows, July 23, 1783, and shortly afterwards, other lands. His 
parents lived at Dighion, Mass., until after 1789, for March 13, of 
that year, they gave house and farm to their son Peter, on condition 
that he should support them through life^_^ 



22 



(36) See letters from Charles H. Paul, Richard O. Paul, Edwin 
Paul, and other descendants of John W. Paul ; from his nephew 
Daniel Paul ; from George H. Paul, and Harrison D. Paul, grand- 
children of his brother James, and from others. All indexed under 
person 5024. Paul Gen. papers. 

(37) According to a petition made by his widow, Bethena Paul, 
of Stafford, Monmouth County, New Jersey, in 1844, to Congress, 
for a pension on account of her husband's services. Letter from 
Hon. John C. Black, Commissioner of Pensions, Department of 
Interior, Washington, D. C, dated April 6, 1886. Paul Gen. 
papers. No. 4036. 

(38) Letter from Benson J. Lossmg, at " The Ridge," Dover 
Plains, Dutchess County, New York, dated February 25, 1886. 
Paul Gen. papers. No. 4023. 




011 699 833 6 



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